I recall the speech of President Cory Aquino, prepared by Teddy Locsin, before the US Congress immediately following her ascension to the presidency.
Poignantly written, it spoke of our national honor, snatched from a despicable dictatorial regime: Aquino’s supreme sacrifice allowed “a nation in shame to recover its honor.”
The speech vividly showed Locsin’s ineluctable abhorrence for any act aimed at disparaging not only a person’s honor but also his own country’s.
However, in his recent Twitter comment, Locsin changed my view of him.
It involves a lady foreign national throwing “taho” at a policeman who was assisting MRT personnel in checking passengers’ bags for liquids.
Police authorities charged the foreigner for several offenses, among them, direct assault, disobedience to authority and unjust vexation.
What a dismay that Locsin, in his comment, simply dismissed the incident as trivial, claiming that “this can happen anywhere, to anyone in any country.”
If, to Locsin, throwing taho or any form of liquid for that matter, at a uniformed personnel while in the performance of his duty is considered trivial, is he not teaching our citizens, and more importantly our youth, wrong values, manners and conduct?
Before we even speak of honor and love of country — the core of Cory’s speech that Locsin wrote passionately — we should first learn not to allow anyone to degrade or debase our own personal honor and integrity.
May we know for whose country Locsin speaks?
BENJIE GUERRERO,
attybenjie@gmail.com